


Post-Mission Drift

by koalathebear



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Drift Bond, Drift Side Effects, F/M, Gen, Post-Canon, The Drift (Pacific Rim)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-12
Updated: 2013-09-12
Packaged: 2017-12-26 09:05:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/964116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koalathebear/pseuds/koalathebear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Journalists always want to know if Drifting makes you lose your identity, if you lose your sense of self because you are constantly in the mind of your copilot.  For Mako and Raleigh, it's quite the reverse.  Both feel as they have come to know themselves better.  The clarity and the inability to hide oneself are as liberating as they are terrifying."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Post-Mission Drift

**Author's Note:**

> No plot, I just really liked the concept art illustration below from "Pacific Rim: Man, Machines, and Monsters" and wanted to write something.

Mako finishes writing her notes on their latest deployment and goes in search of her paperwork-averse co-pilot. She knows where Raleigh will be and goes outside to the closest of the Jaeger Launch Bay platforms that extends out over the churning water.

He's sitting on the edge of the platform, dwarfed by the massiveness of the Shatterdome behind him, the wind ruffling his dark blond hair as he stares out at the horizon with an unreadable expression on his face. The cool sea breeze blows over them both and Mako sits down beside him as she has done many times before. 

Their adversary today was a particularly nasty Category V – vicious, clever and capable of flight and taking more than six hours to vanquish. The aftermath of a six hour neural handshake is still with them and as she reaches out her hand to brush his cheek, he closes his eyes and presses a kiss into the palm of her hand, enjoying the touch of her skin against his. She leans against him and he puts his arms about her shoulders, his head resting against hers as he continues to stare out at the horizon silently.

She stares down for moment at their hands - his tanned and strong with calloused fingertips, hers smaller and paler but equally calloused from assisting with repairs and upgrades of their Jaeger. While some pilots might leave all of the maintenance work to their Jaeger crew, Mako likes to remain involved and be a part of the process. Raleigh never laughs at her when he comes across her sitting and talking to Kodiak Storm. She's alive to both of them.

Mako has seen herself through Raleigh's eyes and it is always a humbling experience. The Mako he sees is far more beautiful, capable and strong than she thinks she is. In turn, he has seen himself through her eyes – brave, loyal and steadfast and it makes him strive constantly to be a better person. 

Journalists always want to know if Drifting makes you lose your identity, if you lose your sense of self because you are constantly in the mind of your copilot. For Mako and Raleigh, it's quite the reverse. Both feel as they have come to know themselves better. The clarity and the inability to hide oneself are as liberating as they are terrifying.

When they're Drifting, even though they're concentrating on the mission, they're always communicating – exchanging thoughts, talking … Raleigh is chattier of the two when on missions, interrupting long periods of silent communication with exclaimed commands and encouragement. Some of it is for the LOCCENT's benefit, some of it just because when he gets so amped up on the adrenaline, his tongue loosens and he finds himself talking and rambling.

Mako is the quieter of the two, preferring to remain silent on missions. In the beginning, it was because she was so desperate not to fall out of alignment again – the memory of her first disaster in Gipsy Danger's Conn-Pod constantly haunting her despite all of Raleigh's attempts to reassure her that it was just a rookie mistake, that it will never happen again.

In the early days, she used all of her energy to focus on the mission rather than risk latching onto a random thought, making speaking out loud simply too difficult. These days, with Raleigh's guidance and encouragement, she is able to distinguish reality from memory, fact from fiction and there is no longer any danger of falling out of alignment and losing herself even when she is concentrating on other things. Nonetheless, old habits die hard and her quiet silence remains but her mind is always busy, responding to Raleigh, embracing his thoughts and questions with her own.

Many Drifts later, it's hard to know where one person's memories begin and the other person's memories end. His pain is hers, her sorrow is his and the burden is suddenly lighter, more bearable and nothing is as bad as it was. 

__

A young, sandy-haired boy with steady blue eyes reaches out to take the cold, trembling hands of a terrified little girl in a dress with blue checks and a coat of deep blue. Onibaba is no longer the terrifying monster it has always been as the boy holds up a toy kaiju and crushes it beneath his heel as the little girl laughs out loud.

As Yancy Becket is pulled, screaming from Gipsy Danger's Conn-Pod, Mako Mori holds Raleigh Becket close, murmuring words of comfort and love as he trembles in her arms, his body quivering from pain and shock. She sheds the tears he has never been able to shed and she is able to say the words of farewell and sorrow that he never has. She might say them in soft and rapid Japanese but they are no less meaningful or significant.

Raleigh gets up for a moment and goes over to pluck a flower that is growing out of one of the cracks in the Shatterdome wall. He walks back to sit beside her, tucking it into the pocket of Mako's dark blue shirt, the yellow petals contrasting with the blue.

As it grows later and the waters below begin to beat more violently against the rocks and the wall of the Shatterdome, Mako shivers slightly in the cold. Raleigh pulls off his jacket to drape around her slender shoulders. She pulls it around her more tightly and breathes deeply of the warm, familiar scent. He leans towards her and his mouth is gentle and the kiss is lingering with a hint of hunger and promise.

" _Daijoubu desu ka_?" she asks him even though she already knows the answer.

" _Daijoubu desu_ ," he assures her, his gaze warm and loving. " _Anatawa?_ "

" _Daijoubu desu_ ," she tells him gravely and he nods. 

He is always very contemplative after their missions. She knows he worries about her – worries about keeping her safe … worries that she will be torn from the Conn-Pod, drowned in the sea, crushed by metal … She has the same fears and they both know that each mission is dangerous and that they may not return - but she also know that he would never pilot a Jaeger without her. They are a team and they are all that the other has left in the world.

"I suppose I have to thank you for doing our paperwork again?" he asks her with a faintly smile curving his mouth.

She nods. "You still have to sign it to say that you agree that it is a true and accurate account of what happened." The descriptions are always much briefer when he's the one who prepares the mission report. He's not one for detailed descriptions and he hates paperwork as much as he hates interviews with the media.

"Sure," he says agreeably and turns his head towards her, sliding his fingers through her hair so that he can kiss her again. Her lips part willingly beneath his and the eagerness of her response makes his body tighten in arousal and anticipation. The only thing closer and more intimate than Drifting with her is fucking her … The word is harsh and doesn't come close to expressing how it feels and what it means to him.

"Is this kiss your thank you for the paperwork?" she asks him softly, her lips moving against his in a smile, her eyes closed.

"I'll thank you properly later," he promises her and draws back for a moment, staring towards the city that they keep safe, a city that has become a home to him in a way that nowhere else in the world has ever been. It's all because of Mako. 

As he and Mako get back on their feet to return inside, he holds his coat so that she slide her arms into the sleeves and he does up the buttons.

"Don't squash the flower," she reminds him and he pulls it out of her shirt-pocket and tucks it into the front pocket of the jacket instead.

The expression on his face tells her that he has many things that he wants to tell her. Mako smiles and cups his face in her hands and draws it down to his for a lingering kiss that deepens and becomes hungry, his tongue sliding into her mouth as he pulls her closer.

"It's ok, Raleigh – I know," she tells him when she draws back, her mouth red and damp, her dark eyes soft and expressive.

"I know you do, Mako," he tells her and she tucks her hand in his and they return to the Shatterdome so that he can thank her properly.


End file.
